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You know what I really hate about the IPL? Thats right, everything! Brands flashed in your face every 5 seconds, commentators turned loquacious marketing whores, pointless gimmicks aimed at keeping audiences with low attention spans tuned in, cheap trinkets being auctioned at highly inflated prices (wait, maybe this hasn't happened yet, but it will!) and most of all cheerleaders... oh no, I don't mean our awesome desi-bred cheerleaders clad from head to toe in tastefully designed garments - I mean after all, that's what cheerleaders are for, right? - I mean those Eastern European imports (because I think its the flavor of the season to discriminate between types of women of "loose morals")...

I wish the IPL took a leaf out of an established cricketing house and their classy presentation of the main event, cricket... Like say, the pinnacle of cricket, Test Cricket, in a progressive country that holds on dear to tradition, like say Australia... Where the commentators aren't pushing tv shows on the same network every few minutes, where unhealthy fast food like KFC isn't pushed onto your face every 10 minutes, where pieces of wood stained by permanent markers or photographs aren't sold for thousands of dollars, where there are no gimmicks like kissing cams, where there are no beach stalls at unfinished stadiums consisting of fat, beer-guzzling patrons ogling at primped up beach barbie dolls.. Thats what I'm talking about, where the focus is on the cricket and the cricket alone, promoting test cricket before it can be killed by some disgusting format that appeals to fans who don't have the patience to understand its beauty.. and all those club teams with their silly names... scorchers was it?

Oh no, you won't see too much being written about that, but you'll keep seeing articles about how the IPL has destroyed Indian cricket... There is only one enemy in the cricket world, and as a recently deceased salesman of the game proclaimed, they don't respect the "Spirit of Cricket"... The future's looking so bright I need to wear my blinkered shades out to every game of cricket.

Who's talking about the destruction of Indian cricket? No really, exactly who is it? And maybe just the death of test cricket, who is writing all those articles?And so what if the BBL is running simultaneously? Was this a piece on the BBL?Sometimes I wonder, is it really so hard to understand what I write or do you read only what you want to see? This article, like a great many others I've written is about how there are completely different attitudes and skews that accompany essentially the same, if not worse, practices put up by boards/teams of different countries. Case in point, Dhoni sets an 8-1 field and is criticized heavily by the English and Australian press, Steve Waugh does the same and is lauded for brilliant captaincy.. Dhoni decides not to chase a match while leading 1-0 so as not to risk levelling a series and is heavily criticized, even by the parrots in our media, Cook allows Bell and Trott to bat out the final day instead of going for a 3-1 margin and is praised for sound cricket... open your eyes.